Making Books

Literary Davids Among Goliaths

By MARTIN ARNOLD

Published: February 14, 2002

One needs audacity and imagination and a passion for books quite remarkable to become a small, independent book publisher these days, because the communal territory is jammed with large houses capable of gobbling up every manuscript there is with their economic and editorial muscle. For the small publisher, no matter how eclectic, it's rather like being an elegant lightweight boxer doing speedy zigging and zagging in a ring with a heavyweight.

Happily for readers and writers, there are enough of these gritty people with their determination to do some serious literary publishing that the giants won't. The Small Publishers Association of North America has more than 1,300 members, and there are more than that in the field. Many are niche operations. Others do a variety of genres; they are miniature versions of large houses in their range. A handful of these small general-interest independent book publishers are in New York, putting them right smack in the competitive swirl of the world's center for churning out books.

No matter. Everyone knows book publishing is an easy thing to do, just as everyone knows he can run a baseball team or put out a newspaper. The business model for these small houses permits them to produce print runs of 3,000 or 4,000 or 5,000 copies and still have a chance for profit. Larger houses need minimums of 12,000 or 15,000 copies, virtually eliminating the likelihood that they will take a chance on the experimental. Would one of today's conglomerate publishing houses be the first to publish Joyce's "Ulysses"? Not likely.

Two of the several general-interest small houses flourishing in New York are Overlook Press and Persea Books, at the opposite ends of "small." Overlook does about 45 new hardcover titles a year and about 45 new trade paperbacks and has 18 employees. Persea, with only four employees, publishes 12 to 15. By comparison, Random House Inc.'s eight divisions publish a total of more than 3,500 books a year.

Independence, adventure and peril make small publishing invigorating. Peter Mayer, founder and publisher of Overlook, explains his satisfaction this way: "All our books feel very close to me." He explains his adventure this way: "We have our happy accidents." Definition of a happy accident: purchasing and publishing "The Royal Physician's Visit" by the Swedish novelist Per Olov Enquist for a modest advance and then selling the paperback rights to Simon & Schuster for $77,000. The book is "a literary masterpiece," Mr. Mayer said, "and how many novels can you say that about?" Well, masterpiece or not, it's at least the definition of a good literary sensibility.

Overlook's biggest coup since Mr. Mayer started it in 1971 could be called a sublimely happy accident. Bitten for a moment by the bug to be nearly big, he paid a reported advance of $50,000 to $100,000 to Robert Littell for his novel about the C.I.A., "The Company," which will be published in April. This was a high-risk leap for a small house, "like scaling Annapurna" in Mr. Mayer's words. But then he was able to sell the reprint rights in nine foreign countries and the paperback rights to Penguin for $225,000. The advance, modest by the standards of a large house, perhaps supports his faith that "Littell is the best espionage writer in the U.S.," and faith is often what small publishing is about.

Generally, a small independent house can maybe make a modest, marginal profit on 3,000 copies if the author's advance is in the $5,000 neighborhood. Most of their advances are from $3,000 to $7,500.

Persea Press publishes 12 to 15 new titles a year, mostly literary: poetry, first novels and occasionally second novels. It was founded 26 years ago by Karen Braziller, its editorial director, and her husband, Michael Braziller, the publisher, and its recent catalog includes the reprint of Oscar Hijuelos's first novel, "Our House in the Last World," and the "Poems of Nazim Hikmet," the Turkish poet. (Mr. Hijuelos won the Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for his Farrar, Straus & Giroux novel, "The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love.") Most Persea printings are about 3,000 copies, but some are 8,000 or 10,000.

Publishing literary books hasn't been too profitable in recent years for large or small publishers, so Persea sort of invented a new type of educational book for the classroom. These are theme anthologies, Mr. Braziller said.

For instance, Persea is publishing "America Street," edited by Anne Mazer, a collection of short stories with each centering around a different ethnic background that can be used from the sixth grade through college, and "Fishing for Chickens," edited by Jim Heynen, for middle- and high-school students studying rural America. It has 16 stories, including one by Alice Walker.

Mrs. Braziller said: "We have a very small list spread over many areas and are competing with large companies that also have lists in each of those areas. We came up with these anthologies that are literary in nature but conceived for the purpose of teaching."

Mr. Braziller said: "We were publishing what we loved, and we noticed some of our books were being used in colleges. That gave us the idea for the anthologies. We continue to publish the literary stuff that we like, but we've survived because of the educational books that pay the bills."

There are lots of Annapurnas in book land. So it's a nervy business being a small independent publisher. What makes it exhilarating is the taking of risks for a belief in a certain type of book, a particular author. Which is why, Mr. Mayer said, "alongside the giant houses, there's always room for the smaller companies."